Chandigarh: Condemning the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government’s first full budget as an absolute disappointment, Punjab’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday said that this budget shattered the dreams of the people, who voted AAP to power.
Senior Congress Leader, Bajwa said that in the previous governments in 75 years, the debt on Punjab was 275000 crore. However, if this government manages to complete its term of five years, it would add another two lakh crore to the existing debt. The government has failed to launch its flagship programme to provide Rs 1000 per month to women over the age of 18 years. The finance minister didn’t even utter a single word on that programme.
“The AAP supremo and Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal had ensured to generate Rs 20000 crore revenue from sand mining. Meanwhile, what they earned from sand mining was just 135 crore in the first years. They had guaranteed to raise the old age pension and widow pension to Rs 2500 per month from Rs 1500. Yet they left this scheme in the lurch”, LoP added.
While ridiculing the AAP government, Bajwa said that from a total 92 MLAs of the so-called revolutionary party, only 48 were present in the house today. Similarly, from total 14 ministers, only eight attended the house.
Expressing grave concern about the way the questions of the opposition party were being left unaddressed in the budget session, Bajwa urged Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to initiate balloting from the next session so that each member in the assembly could have an opportunity.
“Meanwhile the questions, where the AAP government had to face embarrassment, were not addressed. The government evaded such questions, which it felt were hard to answer. This not the way it should be done”, Bajwa added.
Bajwa said that the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker has not played an impartial role. It is going as per the discretion of the speaker completely. The only questions that were being addressed were of the AAP MLAs. The questions that the MLAs of the main opposition party; the Congress party; want to be answered were being disregarded.